TIM. Let me tell you then why the creator made this
world of generation. He was good, and the good can never have any
jealousy of anything. And being free from jealousy, he desired that
all things should be as like himself as they could be. This is in the
truest sense the origin of creation and of the world, as we shall do
well in believing on the testimony of wise men: God desired that all
things should be good and nothing bad, so far as this was attainable.
Wherefore also finding the whole visible sphere not at rest, but
moving in an irregular and disorderly fashion, out of disorder he
brought order, considering that this was in every way better than the
other. Now the deeds of the best could never be or have been other
than the fairest; and the creator, reflecting on the things which are
by nature visible, found that no unintelligent creature taken as a
whole was fairer than the intelligent taken as a whole; and that
intelligence could not be present in anything which was devoid of
soul. For which reason, when he was framing the universe, he put
intelligence in soul, and soul in body, that he might be the creator
of a work which was by nature fairest and best. Wherefore, using the
language of probability, we may say that the world became a living
creature truly endowed with soul and intelligence by the providence of
God.